Mickelberg brothers vow to fight on

Ray and Peter Mickelberg received ex-gratia payments of $500,000 each after serving more than eight and six years in jail respectively. (File photo)

ABC TV

This week, the Western Australian Government tried to close the book on one of the country's longest running legal battles when it paid out $1 million to two brothers wrongfully convicted of the infamous Perth mint swindle in 1982.

Ray and Peter Mickelberg received ex-gratia payments of $500,000 each after serving more than eight and six years in jail respectively.

Their convictions were overturned in 2004 but they say the payment does not even come close to covering their costs in clearing their names and they have vowed to press on with civil action against the police officers involved in the case.

More than 25 years after their wrongful conviction in one of WA's longest running legal sagas, Ray and Peter Mickelberg have received the largest ex-gratia payment in the history of WA.

But rather than ending the matter, the payment has made the brothers even more determined to continue their legal battle.

Ray Mickelberg says he and his brother lost much more than $500,000.

"We lost our families, we lost our homes, we lost our jobs, we've lost the lot and then the Government offers us $500,000, knowing we lost the lot," he said.

"We haven't asked for much more, we just said, 'Give us back what you took from us.' They couldn't even do that. That's the type of justice that exists in WA."

Peter Mickelberg agrees.

"Ray and I have been fighting this case for 25 years so when you work it out on that basis and put it in that perspective at $20,000 a year, it's not a hell of a lot of money," he said.

In 1982, in what police described as a heist executed with daring and precision, the Perth Mint was defrauded of $650,000 worth of gold bullion.

The case had the element offences of a Hollywood movie, tough cops bent on getting a conviction, an SAS and Vietnam veteran, and hundreds of thousands of missing gold.

Weeks after the heist, Ray, Peter and Brian Mickelberg were arrested and charged. They were convicted in 1983.

"This is how naive we were, on the morning that I was taken for trial I said to my wife and kids, I kissed them good bye and said,'I'll see you tonight'," Ray Mickelberg said.

"I didn't see my family again for eight-and-a-half years."

Evidence fabricated

Former soldier Ray Mickelberg served eight years in jail.

His brother Peter Mickelberg served six-and-a-half years, while another brother, Brian Mickelberg, served nine months before he died in a plane crash in 1986.

In 2002, one of the investigating police officers Tony Lewandowski, confessed that he and another senior officer, Don Hancock, fabricated the evidence against the brothers and that he and Detective Hancock had beaten Peter Mickelberg.

Mr Lewandowski was charged and sent to trial over the matter.

"All I really want to say is that I'm certainly going to fulfil my agreement with the court and see the matter through to the end," Mr Lewandowski said in 2002.

But after the charges were thrown out of court, Mr Lewandowski committed suicide in 2004. Later that year the Mickelberg brothers' convictions were quashed.

The state's Attorney-General Jim McGinty believed the million-dollar payment washes the Government's hands of the case.

"I'm very pleased this brings to an end the Mickelberg saga, so far as the State Government is concerned," he said.

"Altogether, $1.65 million a has now been paid to the Mickelbergs, $500,000 each plus $658,000 has already been paid to meet their legal expenses in mounting both their 1998 and 2004 appeal."

But the police and Mickelbergs now find themselves agreeing that the case is far from over.

"These police officers at the time were employed by Government. He cannot get away from the fact that the Government has responsibility for them," Mike Dean, from the police union, said.

Ray Mickelberg says they have been left with no other choice.

"The decision by the Attorney-General and Government has now left us no alternative other than to go forward in our action against the police," he said.

Civil action

The Mickelberg civil action is against the estates of Mr Lewandowski and Mr Hancock and five other officers who were involved in the case.

Ray Mickelberg says they hope it will be the fair and open trial they feel they never had.

"Every police officer involved will be called, this time they'll be properly cross-examined," he said.

Mr Dean, from the police union, believes the Government may be dragged back into the case, if not by the Mickelbergs, then by the police officers.

"The Attorney-General had the opportunity to finally close and put this entire matter to bed. He should have taken that option," he said.

"[By] essentially by paying them enough money to get rid of the entire case."

Mr McGinty does not agree.

"That is ultimately a private matter between the Mickelbergs and those individuals, their civil action will not involve the state and there will be no comeback against the state," he said.

Police say the Perth mint swindle is still an open case and no one may ever know who stole the gold.

"My view is that it will never be resolved. The truth got lost many years ago," Mr Dean said.

But the Mickelbergs say they know one thing - justice is something they have had to fight almost a lifetime for and they have chosen another potentially lengthy legal battle.

"If you take us on, be prepared for major, major fight, and we say this now to Mick Dean and the Government. It is not over," Ray Mickelberg said.

His brother Peter says: "It has consumed our lives to the extent that we haven't had much of a life in 25 years."